Finding Opportunities, Thinking Outside the Box, and Leading the Retail Evolution
How do you stand out in a saturated market? According to Jiake Liu, you have to actually do something different. Jiake is the co-founder and CEO of Outer, a company that is designing a common household good — outdoor furniture — but in an entirely new way.
As ecommerce has become more prevalent, customers are catching on to some of the more suspect aspects of product marketing. They’re starting to notice that when you look for something like furniture online, you’re seeing a lot of the same exact products just branded slightly differently. Companies are using the same materials, the same suppliers, and selling the same or only slightly differentiated products, so the question for brands is, what do you do to stand out? For Jiake Liu, the co-founder and CEO of Outer, the answer was simple: actually do something different. Outer is the first sustainable consumer brand for outdoor living with a core focus on material science, which, according to Jiake, is only one of the ways that Outer is separating itself from the competition.
“Most furniture companies, they’re really design-driven, they’re aesthetic-driven,” Liu said. “They’re more like fashion, right? You’re not really solving for any problems, but at Outer, we’re very much a problem solution-driven company, more like a Dyson or even like a tech software company. Because that’s how we truly think about designing every product.”
What are some of the problems Outer is solving? There are a lot actually. From finding a way to more easily carry cushions, to developing bug-repelling blankets, to completely reimagining the materials used, Outer is pushing the limits and bringing solutions to consumers.
“A lot of people don’t know about this, [but] outdoor furniture specifically has to use synthetic materials, manmade materials, so pipes, metal, etcetera,” Liu said. “You can’t really use just any wood that you would see in your living room furniture because it’s constantly exposed to the elements — UV, rain, oxidation, etcetera. And so how do you create materials that can last in those environments, but it’s also comfortable to the touch? Because at the end of the day, it’s furniture that you sit on and you touch, but also sustainable, eco-friendly, recyclable and all of that. So that’s been the core challenge that we’ve taken on from day one. At the end of the day, we are a brand about helping people enjoy the great outdoors and so we need to take part in protecting it and we go through extended lengths to make sure that everything we do is sustainable.”
But the sustainability mission isn’t only featured in how Outer sources materials, it is a part of everything the company does. Why? Because Liu believes the future depends on it.
“My cofounder and I founded the business because we believe that a business is the best platform to drive positive change for the world,” he said. “We both truly believe in that and we’re in the business of inviting people outside and enjoying what the great outdoors has to offer, which means, if in 50 years, the greenhouse effect is so severe and ice caps are melting and wildfires are blazing everywhere, we wouldn’t have any outdoor space to enjoy, right? And so it behooves us… to really think ahead and think, how do we invite more people outside and instead of beating them over the head and say, ‘Hey, you should recycle. You should really be environmentally conscious,’ why don’t we just make a great experience to get people outside and they enjoy being outside and in return, they will care about protecting the environment. And it doesn’t take a trip to the National Park. It doesn’t take a grandiose like a mountain climbing trip to really appreciate that. All it takes is one step outside in your backyard every day to start appreciating that.”
To hear more about Outer, tune into Up Next in Commerce.
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